Browsing by Subject "youth"
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(2021)In this thesis I concentrate on diaspora peacebuilding and examine the potential of the Finnish Somali diaspora for peace in Somalia. My research question is, how members of the Finnish Somali diaspora perceive the greatest challenges and primary needs in Somalia for peace and their abilities to contribute to peace in the country. My research data consists of eight semi-structured interviews resembling themed interviews. These interviews were conducted with active members of the Finnish Somali diaspora, and I have analysed them by using qualitative content analysis. The aims of my research are to contribute to the current critical academic discussion on peacebuilding and to deepen the discussion on diaspora peacebuilding, as well as to bring out voices from the Finnish Somali diaspora regarding peacebuilding. In the theory chapter I review current academic discussion on the challenges of peacebuilding related to local ownership and negotiated hybridity and examine novel academic literature on the strengths of diaspora for peacebuilding. Drawing from both theoretical literatures, I suggest that diaspora could mitigate shortcomings on the peacebuilding field for example with the help of context-specific knowledge and a more nuanced understanding of actors and power structures at play in their place of origin, and by helping to bridge the gap between the local and the international. In the material analysis I examine the challenges and needs for peace in Somalia as perceived by my interviewees and their hopes and dreams for the future of the country. Moreover, I explore strengths of the Finnish Somali diaspora for peacebuilding in Somalia and challenges to diaspora peacebuilding as identified by my interviewees. The challenges for peace in my interview data mostly related to problematics of a long-collapsed state and economic or resource related power structures in a country suffering from an elongated conflict. My interviewees demonstrated an understanding of different actors and power structures at play in Somalia on both local, regional, and international levels. My interviewees understood peacebuilding in a broad way, and skills and knowledge transfer was a preferred mechanism of diaspora peacebuilding in most of my interviews. Capacity building and education transfer came up multiple times, and education and experience from Finland was considered highly valuable. Setting up businesses in Somalia was also considered positive as long as locals would be employed. These activities were presented as a response to the challenges in Somalia related to poverty and unemployment and hence radicalisation, especially among youth. Political involvement of the diaspora in Somalia was mostly seen as problematic. The greatest challenge for diaspora peacebuilding identified by my interviewees was the poor security situation in Somalia. From my research it is clear, that the diaspora is a heterogenous group just as the local or the international is, and there are generational differences within the Finnish Somali diaspora that need to be considered in relation to diaspora peacebuilding. Based on this study, I would encourage further research on peacebuilding and diaspora youth, and on diaspora-local relationships.
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(2022)Finnish society is increasingly pluralistic regarding religion, and especially Muslims are rapidly growing in numbers. The population structure of Muslims in Finland is increasingly young, yet young Muslims’ experiences are currently under-studied. Muslims have been present in Finland since the early 19th century, along with other ethnic and religious minorities. Still, ever since then, Finland has been viewed as culturally homogeneous. This is connected to the view of Lutheranism as an intrinsic part of the Finnish national identity. This has led to an exclusion of people who do not belong to the category of Finnishness, and thus resulted in anti-Muslim racism. The objective of this master’s thesis is three-fold. The first aim is to contribute to the currently scarce research on social media representations of Islam and Muslims. Secondly, the existing media research on Islam and Muslims is heavily concentrated on media produced by non-Muslims, rather than media produced by Muslims themselves. Especially, research on media representations produced by young Finnish Muslims themselves are next to none. Thirdly, previous research shows that young Muslims in Europe are mostly studied in relation to issues of extremism, radicalization and violence. The manifolded nature of Muslim identities is not considered enough in the academia, and thus it is important to adopt an intersectional research approach that considers Muslims’ different identity categories, such as religion, ethnicity and age. This is done through qualitatively examining young Finnish Muslims in a previously unstudied social media environment: podcasts. The thesis answers two research questions: 1. ‘How do young Muslims negotiate their identities, especially in relation to Finnishness?’ and 2. ‘How are experiences of racism discussed in podcasts produced by young Muslims in Finland?’ The data of the thesis consists of four episodes from three different podcasts produced by young Finnish Muslims, ‘Ramadan Radio: Limitless Talks’, ‘Kahden kulttuurin väkeä’ and ‘Kh4nVision Podcast’. The thesis adopts a social constructionist approach to studying identity, based on the assumption that knowledge is produced in interaction with others. The chosen analytical methodology is critical discourse analysis (CDA). Six dominant discourses emerged from the data in the analysis: 1) intersectional identities as problematic; 2) code-switching between different identities; 3) Islam as an identity marker; 4) agency in change; 5) assigning responsibility of racism to the structures; and 6) internalized racism. The results reflect a complicated reality of being a young Muslim in Finland. In the podcasts, young Muslims negotiate their intersectional identities in relation to Finnishness from a problem-based perspective. Experiences of racism are manifested in the podcasts in numerous ways, from code-switching to reproducing racist language. The results of the study indicate that young Finnish Muslims’ identity is socially constructed and religious and ethnic identities are interconnected. The results of the thesis also show that discourse of identities is tightly connected to the context of production and the assumed audience of the content. The results support previous research findings, demonstrating that Muslims choose to emphasize different parts of their identity in contexts where Islam is not at center stage.
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